1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to communication systems; and more particularly to high-speed serial bit stream communications.
2. Description of Related Art
The structure and operation of communication systems is generally well known. Communication systems support the transfer of information from one location to another location. Early examples of communication systems included the telegraph and the public switch telephone network (PSTN). When initially constructed, the PSTN was a circuit switched network that supported only analog voice communications. As the PSTN advanced in its structure and operation, it supported digital communications. The Internet is a more recently developed communication system that supports digital communications. As contrasted to the PSTN, the Internet is a packet switch network.
The Internet consists of a plurality of switch hubs and digital communication lines that interconnect the switch hubs. Many of the digital communication lines of the Internet are serviced via fiber optic cables (media). Fiber optic media supports high-speed communications and provides substantial bandwidth, as compared to copper media. At the switch hubs, switching equipment is used to switch data communications between digital communication lines. WANs, Internet service providers (ISPs), and various other networks access the Internet at these switch hubs. This structure is not unique to the Internet, however. Portions of the PSTN, wireless cellular network infrastructure, Wide Area Networks (WANs), and other communication systems also employ this same structure.
The switch hubs employ switches to route incoming traffic and outgoing traffic. A typical switch located at a switch hub includes a housing having a plurality of slots that are designed to receive Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) upon which integrated circuits and various media connectors are mounted. The PCBs removably mount within the racks of the housing and typically communicate with one another via a back plane of the housing. Each PCB typically includes at least two media connectors that couple the PCB to a pair of optical cables and/or copper media. The optical and/or copper media serves to couple the PCB to other PCBs located in the same geographic area or to other PCBs located at another geographic area.
For example, a switch that services a building in a large city couples via fiber media to switches mounted in other buildings within the city and switches located in other cities and even in other countries. Typically, Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) are mounted upon the PCBs of the housing. These ASICs perform switching operations for the data that is received on the coupled media and transmitted on the coupled media. The coupled media typically terminates in a receptacle and transceiving circuitry coupled thereto performs signal conversion operations. In most installations, the media, e.g., optical media, operates in a simplex fashion. In such case, one optical media carries incoming data (RX data) to the PCB while another optical media carries outgoing data (TX data) from the PCB. Thus, the transceiving circuitry typically includes incoming circuitry and outgoing circuitry, each of which couples to a media connector on a first side and communicatively couples to the ASIC on a second side. The ASIC may also couple to a back plane interface that allows the ASIC to communicate with other ASICs located in the enclosure via a back plane connection. The ASIC is designed and implemented to provide desired switching operations. The operation of such enclosures and the PCBs mounted therein is generally known.
The conversion of information from the optical media or copper media to a signal that may be received by the ASIC and vice versa requires satisfaction of a number of requirements. First, the coupled physical media has particular RX signal requirements and TX signal requirements. These requirements must be met at the boundary of the connector to the physical media. Further, the ASIC has its own unique RX and TX signal requirements. These requirements must be met at the ASIC interface. Thus, the transceiving circuit that resides between the physical media and the ASIC must satisfy all of these requirements.
Various standardized interfaces have been employed to couple the transceiving circuit to the ASIC. These standardized interfaces include the XAUI interface, the Xenpak interface, the GBIC interface, the XGMII interface, and the SFI-5 interface, among others. The SFI-5 interface, for example, includes 16 data lines, each of which supports a serial bit stream having a nominal bit rate of 2.5 Giga bits-per-second (GBPS). Line interfaces also have their own operational characteristics. Particular high-speed line interfaces are the OC-768 interface and the SEL-768 interface. Each of these interfaces provides a high-speed serial interface operating at a nominal bit rate of 40 GBPS.
Particular difficulties arise in converting data between the 40×1 GBPS line interface and the 16×2.5 GBPS communication ASIC interface. In particular, operation on the 40 GBPS side requires the ability to switch data at a very high bit rate, e.g., exceeding the bit rate possible with a CMOS integrated circuit formed of Silicon. While other materials, e.g., Indium-Phosphate and Silicon-Germanium provide higher switching rates than do Silicon based devices, they are very expensive and difficult to manufacture. Further, the functional requirements of interfacing the 40×1 GBPS line interface and the 16×2.5 GBPS communication ASIC interface are substantial. Thus, even if a device were manufactured that could perform such interfacing operations, the effective yield in an Indium-Phosphate or Silicon-Germanium process would be very low.
One significant problem that can plague any high-speed clock data interface is timing skew. Timing skew is the difference between the times at which two signals arrive at a timing point in a circuit for which their arrival time is intended to be coincidental. For a high-speed data interface, it is critical for the proper transfer of data from a transmitting circuit to a receiving circuit that the clock, and particularly the edge of the clock used to latch the data into the receiving circuit, arrives coincidentally in time with arrival and availability of the data to be latched.
A number of factors can lead to the timing relationship between the clock and the data to be skewed when they reach the receiving circuit. First, the generation of the clock and data may be independent, so they may not necessarily start out coincidental in phase or even frequency. Additionally, the path over which the signals must propagate from the transmitting circuit to the receiving circuit may be quite different in length and load, leading to variations in propagation times. The clock is often fed to many circuits within the receiving circuit by way of large clock trees that can lead to some branches of the clock tree having different propagation delays than others. Significant skew can also occur between data signals, making a uniform adjustment for the skews that occur between clock and the different data lines very difficult.
The compensation for skew becomes especially critical at the clock frequencies and data rates employed in high speed serial bit stream communications circuits and systems. Because of the high frequencies (as high as 5 GHz clocks and 10 GHz data rates), the window of time available to perform the latching operation is very small. Jitter occurring on the data and clock lines further reduces the window, making it critical that any mismatches in propagation times and frequency be substantially eliminated.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a low cost and high speed interface that couples a high-speed line side interface to a communication ASIC, even in the presence of significant signal skew.